Groton selectman quits Nashoba chamber over Kinder Morgan sponsorship

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GROTON -- No sooner did local businessman and Selectman Joshua Degen join the Nashoba Valley Chamber of Commerce than he found himself at odds with the organization and submitted his resignation.

Degen's resignation was sent to chamber offices in Devens just a month after he became a member and paid an initial membership fee.

The bone of contention between Degen and the chamber is Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P., which is seeking government approval to run a new natural-gas pipeline across northern Massachusetts, including Groton.

"I feel strongly about the chamber taking a position and giving a company such as Kinder Morgan a gold sponsorship and spotlighting them in their newsletter," said Degen, of his resignation. "I just don't condone their business throwing around money just to make themselves look like a respectable company."

In his message to chamber President and CEO Melissa Fetterhoff, Degen explained his decision to abruptly withdraw his membership.

"I was looking forward to my company's new membership until I read your October Chamber View newsletter," stated Degen in his message. "I find it quite disheartening that you have prominently made Kinder Morgan your Gold Sponsor. This company has a very poor environmental record and is threatening our region with major deforestation. Their proposed Northeast expansion project is flawed on many levels. I cannot see myself partnered with your Chamber as I am opposed to their policies.

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Degen, who owns a landscaping company called Earthscape Inc., concluded his message with a request that the chamber cancel his membership and refund his membership fee.

"Moving forward, you should scrutinize your new members more carefully," he stated.

In response, Fetterhoff said the chamber has accepted Degen's resignation.

"The fact is that Kinder Morgan joined the chamber months before Josh had made his decision to join," she said. "I was quite surprised that he just recently decided to join and that within a month after receiving the newsletter reporting that Kinder Morgan was a sponsor, his resignation."

Fetterhoff said the chamber offers three level of sponsorship, with the highest being "Premier." Only one entity, North Middlesex Savings Bank, holds that designation. The other two levels are, in order, "Platinum" and "Gold."

Each level of sponsorship entitles sponsors to membership in the chamber and a certain amount of advertising they can purchase in the chamber's newsletter. Fetterhoff declined to say what level of financial commitment determines each designation, saying it wasn't fair to other entities that made similar commitments.

Fetterhoff said that although the chamber has received a few complaints from the public about the group's association with Kinder Morgan, it has not received one from any of its 650 members.

"I said to Josh that we are happy with Kinder Morgan's participation in the chamber," said Fetterhoff, adding there were no plans by the chamber to dissociate itself from the energy distributor. "We are a business organization, and encourage businesses in our region, and Kinder Morgan is in our region or looking to do business in our region, so we invite them to join.

"Josh is who he is, and he likes to stir the pot," said Fetterhoff. "I just feel that he is not playing fair."

Kinder Morgan has proposed construction of a new 36-inch-high pressure main from Dracut through Groton and beyond to supply area towns and other communities in central Massachusetts with natural gas.

In Groton, the proposed pipeline would run across portions of land owned by the Conservation Commission, Conservation Trust, beneath the Nashua River, over numerous private parcels, and the Groton-Dunstable Regional High School.

Since the controversial plan was announced, opponents have rallied against the proposal.

Stressing the chamber's position that it does not take sides in business disputes so long as they operate within the law, Fetterhoff said the group has not ignored the pipeline issue, the subject having come up in a meeting held earlier in the year with state officials including Attorney General Martha Coakley.

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